Essays

Here’s a selection of longer posts from the blog.

Policing

How is the “homeland” becoming more and more like the “battlefield”?

• Militarization of U.S. police forces in Ferguson and beyond – LINKS (updated) (August 20th 2014)
• Minority Report war-policing: the rush to secure time (October 31, 2013)
• The “dronification” of U.S. law enforcement (September 30, 2013)
• Securing the Homeland: The nexus of capital, drones, and law enforcement (Jan 28, 2013)
• Police Drones and Autonomy (October 2, 2012)
• LA police deployed wide-area aerial surveillance in 2012 (May 7, 2014)

Targeted Killings

How exactly does the “kill-chain” work?

• Bureaucratic Assassination — How do U.S. Targeted Killings Work? (October 3, 2013)
• From Jailer to Eraser: The CIA’s shift to drones (April 15, 2013)
• Targeted Killing: The Israeli Precedent to U.S. Drone Wars (November 25, 2013)
• The Playbook and the Lethal Bureaucrat: John Brennan and the creation of a ‘Permanent War’ (November 29, 2012)
• The Obama Administration’s ‘Disposition Matrix’ – a Deadly Drone Database? (October 25, 2012)
• Waging War by Other Means: The Bureaucratic Present (September 26, 2012)

Surveillance

What role do surveillance agencies play in contemporary warfare?

• The Kill-Net: NSA and CIA Collaboration in Drone Manhunt (October 17, 2013)
• An Espionage Empire: Details of “Black Budget” leak (September 2, 2013)
• An Espionage Empire, Part II: The GENIE is Out of the Bottle (September 2, 2013)
• The NSA boom and the “Geolocation Cell” (July 25, 2013)

Vietnam

What are the historical precedents of drone warfare in Vietnam?

 

• Scorched Atmospheres: The Violent Geographies of the Vietnam War and the Rise of Drone Warfare (January 5, 2016).
• The Vietnam War roots to U.S. police militarization: Bringing the Electronic Battlefield Home (August 20, 2014)
• The Laser Age in the Vietnam War  (Jan 15, 2014)
• Drone Origins: World War II and Vietnam-era Remotely Piloted Vehicles (December 2, 2013)
• “Kill Anything that Moves”: Systematic Violence in the Vietnam War (August 23, 2013)

Outer Space

How is outer space being targeted by the military as the “last frontier”?

• The Final Frontier: Garrisoning Outer Space (August 15, 2013)
• A Deadly Atmosphere: The Emerging Dronification of Space (November 15, 2012)

Ocean

What role does the ocean play in contemporary U.S. power projection?

• Ocean Power, Sovereign Power: The Fusion of the U.S. Navy and Drones in the Predator Empire
• The Geopolitical Importance of the Ocean to the U.S. Drone Wars (March 5, 2013)

Africa

Is there a new “Scramble for Africa” by the U.S. military?

• The U.S. Military’s Ongoing Securitization of Africa (January 6, 2016).
• The U.S. military’s rush to secure Africa (March 14, 2004)
• U.S. Drone bases in Africa mapped (Feb 28, 2013)
• The Predator Empire Spreads its Wings to West Africa (again) (Jan 29, 2013)
• The U.S.’ secretive “scramble for Africa” (July 13, 2012)

Guantanamo Bay

Where is Guantanamo Bay? (July 25, 2013)

The World is a Battlefield

What role do Special Forces play in the contemporary arrangement of U.S. military power across the globe?

• An Empire of Bases and Special Forces: Garrisoning the Globe (January 6 2016)

• Jeremy Scahill’s “Dirty Wars” – first impressions
• Dirty Wars: A Review, Part 1: The Rise of Neoconservatives
• Dirty Wars: A Review, Part 2: The Rise of JSOC
• Dirty Wars: A Review, Part 3: Lawfare, or “Operational Preparation of the Battlespace”
• Dirty Wars, A Review, Part 4: The Phoenix Rises from the Ashes (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan)
• Blowback Somalia (Dirty Wars, a Review, Part 5)

• Creating Monsters: Dirty Wars, A Review, Part 6

The Dronification of State Violence

• The Dronification of State Violence, Part 1: Life and Death in the West Wing
• The Dronification of State Violence, Part II: Historical Origins
• The Dronification of State Violence, Part III: The Drone War Paper Trail
• The Dronification of State Violence, Part IV: The Predator
• The Dronification of State Violence, Part V: A Well-Oiled Killing Machine, and the Rule by Nobody
• The Endgame: The War of All Against All (The Dronification of State Violence, Conclusion)

Other

• The legal limits of the drone war (March 11, 2013)
• Reflections on Drone Violence and Robot Soldiers: Lessons from Hannah Arendt (Jan 29, 2013)
• The Future of Killer Robots: Are We Really Losing Humanity? (December 11, 2012)
• Are Drones an Existential Threat? (December 10, 2012)
• Deadly Documents: Executive Orders, Their Monarchical Power, and Their Roots in Thanksgiving (November 22, 2012)
• Losing Humanity: Ban Killer Robots (November 20, 2012)
• The Moral and Legal Case for Drones: An All-Too-Human Responsibility (October 12, 2012)